H & M SS12

Have you seen H&M's SS line yet?
It looks like it's mostly back down to basics. Lots of white. Some bright pops of color.
I like a lot of what I see.
What do you think?

photo credit: thebudgetfashionista

photo credit: chicoverload

Tiny Little Pictures

Drawing 

tiny little

pictures of  skeletons

to get across the sense of

impending doom.

Spider Skeleton by resonanteyes

Lyrics from the Los Campesinos song 'drop it doe eyes' 

Post inspired by the episode of Project Accessory that aired tonight.

Clear Ornaments

I was planning on spending part of today making a few Christmas ornaments. There is currently a 6ft fake tree sitting in my living room. The boyfriends dad gave it to us, and we have yet to decorate it. 

Neither of us have any Christmas decorations already. 

We went out and bought some lights, and went with the color scheme he wanted which is silver, gold, and red. Not quite what I had in mind, but it will be pretty.

(I had wanted something crazy like lime green and purple... or electric blue and orange).

I've been to 5 stores now in search of plain, clear, glass ornaments that I can decorate myself to help make our tree a little more personal. I haven't been able to find any. Probably due to how late in the season we went looking. Everyone else already has their whole house decked out, so we had to pick over the leftovers. Boo.

My original plan was to use this morning to craft and take photos, and post them all here. I suppose since I can't do that, the next best thing will be hunting down other bloggers DIY's to give you. 

Here's a short list i've come across.

 

Fancy House Road put together some instructions for using paint to make your own personalized colors! Basically, pour some paint inside and twirl it around til the whole ornament is coated. 

Simple, and you can create some great custom colors!

 

No directions here, but Country Living provides this photo to spark ideas.

Family Chic has the idea to fill bulbs up with yarn or twine. You can use almost anything here including ribbons or paper clippings. Your favorite poem written out and cut into slices? I often come across fantastic colored yarn, but since I don't knit, I have no use for buying it. I may think twice now and set some aside for this project next year.

 

I came across this photo on Pinterest. It links back to the Freepeople blog, but doesn't give a specific post. Add some embellishments like fake flowers from the scrapbooking section of your craft store. (or cut the stems off the larger floral flowers). It looks like they added a tiny but of glitter to spruce them up. 

Feathers?! What a fantastic idea that's in style right now. Cook Love Craft has a set of instructions on their blog. This almost makes me want to go out and buy a tabletop mini white tree to do! Simple, yet very chic.

25 Ways to Wear a Scarf in 4.5 Minutes!

Sprinkles

Photo

Candyland Construction by Paper Angels Photography

 Milk shooters with sprinkles from Martha Stewart

Cake with Bunting

Yes, this is a painting made with sprinkles!

Sprinkles photograph by Ara133photography

Cranberry Mulled Cider

Video Recipe

A great video on how to make the perfect holiday comfort drink.

cranberry mulled cider from tiger in a jar on Vimeo.

 A second written recipe from Martha Stewert Weddings

Cyber Monday Gift Guide

This weekend is the busiest shopping weekend of the year. 

We have flown by Black Friday as well as Small Business Saturday.

Tomorrow will be Cyber Monday! 

The perfect way to hit two of these days is to combine small business with cyber shopping. 

I've set up a lovely gift guide, with something for everyone.

Just remember, these are special prices and after Monday, may be gone for good!

For Your Special Lady

Why buy a boring mass produced necklace when you can buy the woman you love a one of a kind treasure?

Originally $74, this necklace will be on sale for $59.20.

FiveLittleGems entire shop is 20% off, plus free domestic shipping. 

 

For the Book Nerd

Your teenage daughter always has a book in her hands. 

You'd buy her another one, but there's a good chance she already owns it.  Pick up a set of Dewey Decimal earrings so she can show off her hobby to whose wise enough to understand. 

This set of earrings from SovereignSea is originally $17. 

If you use the code SUPPORTSMALLBIZ while checking out, you get 15% off!

For the Hostess

She throws dinner parties you always attend, but you're never quite sure what to bring for her holiday gift.

Try a mosaic pillar candle holder. After all, she loves a nice smelling house.

This one is originally $40, and on sale for $34. It even can double as a vase!

Three Sisters Candles offers gorgeous candle holders, as well as candles to fit them.

The City Lover

Perfect for a male or a female. 

That person who has always felt a special connection with the packed streets and city lights.

Nancy Falso Photography offers fantastic NYC prints such as this one.

Originally $25, it's on sale for $17.50.

For The Organized

Key holder? Check. Mail sorter? Check.
Scarves on the knobs. Gloves in the top? Oh so many uses. 

Legal Miss Sunshine makes these great organizers. This one is originally $52 and on sale for $41.60!

For The Hunter

Originally $32, this bullet necklace is available for $24.

The chain is perfect length for male or female.

Black Star has many more bullet pieces in her shop as well!

For The Gardener

Cubits shop is full of organic seeds. 

You can normally pick up 3 packs for $10, but right now you can get 20% off plus a free basil pack!

Use code BLACKFRIDAY20 when checking out.

For Your Lil Girl 

 Your precious daughter, niece, or granddaughter carries her American Girl doll with her everywhere.
Keep that lil doll bundled up tight in this winter outfit.
Dress Ur Dolly is doing free shipping and has some of the most original outfits I've seen! 

Of course, i'm doing one in my own shop as well! 10% off plus free shipping.

Thanksgiving Leftovers.

Thanksgiving is officially over.

Who has a fridge full of leftovers? Hmm?

What are you planning on doing with them? 

Image from Dallas Observer. I warn you, the article this comes from is fairly "f-bomb" heavy.

How amazing does that look? 

Start with two slices of fantastic wheat bread, extra points if it's handmade! 

Add a big ol layer of cranberry sauce. 

While it's best home made, I'll try not to hold it against you if you make it from a can! 

Layer on the turkey slices, followed by a helping of stuffing. This year, at our house, we skipped the traditional stuff packed with celery pieces and instead had turkey bacon in ours. 

Yes, pieces of turkey bacon. Mmmmm.

Top it with a light layer of mayo... if you want to add that, I may skip that layer. 

Toss on the top piece of bread, slice in half, and DIG IN.

Perfect leftover sandwich.

Button Ornaments

Tis the season! 

Wait... it isn't even Thanksgiving yet! Hmm... Oh well.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that they know I'm not too big on Christmas. For one, I'm not a fan of the colors red and green being combined in just about anything. 

I prefer "winter" decorations over "christmas" ones I guess you could say. 

Those icey blues and silvers are where it's at for me! Give me the beauty of snow and ice please. 

I also like decorations that are slightly out of the ordinary. 

Buttons? They're good for more than just keeping your clothes together. I came across three different ornaments that you can customize any way you want to for the perfect holiday look. They'd be cheap and easy to make for a color themed tree especially! 

The buttons used aren't really expensive. If you go into the craft store and  look hard enough (in Hobby Lobby they're near the scrap booking and embellishments) 

you'll be able to find pretty big bags of buttons for $6.

At Wendys Hat, she purchased clear bulbs that you can take the top cap off and fill with anything you'd like, as long as it's small enough to fit into that hole. 
The hat lady went with a classic white color that would fit in any setting. 
I do think these would look best when filled with 3 colors or less.
I love the classic look of this one.  Tie a ribbon to the top or add a metal hanger for your tree. 
This particular one has a tassle hanging down to spice it up a bit. 

I saw this piece on Curbly.

Styrofoam ball of any size.

Straight pins. (the kind you find in the sewing department)

Buttons!

Going multi color here sounds like a great idea. 

The contrasting colors on the overlapping pieces is perfect! 

To top this off, try taking a small piece of wire (jewelry wire, floral wire, anything) and making an upside down "U" shape with it. Stick the ends into the ball and add a dot of glue to keep them in place. Tie a ribbon bow onto your "U" to hide the wire, and add a hanger from there.

There are 4 other button ornament ideas on that website as well!

Modern Minerals came up with this little tree, after seeing the Martha Stewart mini button wreath ornament.  The big bag of buttons you can pick up has varying sizes included. Pick a color scheme, and start stacking! The author at MM used a plain piece of cord to string through the holes.  You do need to make sure what you're using is small enough to fit, and sturdy enough to hold it. Don't use thick leather or thin thread. I would suggest a piece of hemp perhaps.  You can glue or paint the tip so it stays stiff and moves through the holes easier. If you don't have any cord, hemp, or thin yarn... try a piece of medium thickness wire. 

A tiny star bead (or any bead) makes the perfect tree topper.

Wichita Mountains

We made one last trip to the mountains this year before it started getting a little cold. 

It was the weekend after they got the fire out. There was a huge fire in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma. When I say huge, I mean, I think it burned over 40,000 acres. That's quite a bit of land. 

After doing a short search I came across this photo, which I did not take.

Credit for this goes to this photosteam. 

Looks like it's the view of a piece of the area from Fort Sill.

Here are a few photos that I did take.

The first few show what most of the ground looked like as we were driving. It's insane how a fire can hit one side of the road, and not the other... or go in a complete circle, but miss a 5x5 patch in the middle. 

This past summer has been fairly bad with fires in the southwest.

Usually we spot lots of buffalo. This trip, we only saw a few.  The rest must have been in hiding!

But, there were plenty of longhorns. 

And you can't forget the prairie dogs!!

I leave you with a photo of me.

Lets ignore the fact that one of my shirts was pulled down oddly too much in the back. hah.

Pinterest Pinday Mini Cakes

Todays Pinday post is centered around mini cakes. 

These things are really neat looking. 

I've purchased the cakes that are baked into glass canning jars before, but these take it a step further.
Mashing up your cake with your frosting?
Baking them in your leftover green beans can from last nights dinner?
Yeah, this takes the cake! (pun intended. baha)

Counter clockwise from top left:

• How to make a single serving mini cake. If you cut the top and bottom off a can and cover the bottom with tin foil, you can fill it up halfway with cake batter and bake it! Once it's completely cooled, flip it over and shake it out of the can to decorate.
  
• You can either decorate your cake easy with some icing on top, or get fancy with it! This person has already decorated this one with a monogram of my initial. Maybe it was meant just for me? haha!

• Bright green and swirl decorated cake pops! Bake a cake, and then crumble the entire thing into a bowl. Take your icing and mix it into the cake crumbles. Yes, you have to use your hands and yes, you will get messy!
  
• Once you have your mix, form into balls and put a stick in each one (if you want them on sticks. you could just keep them as balls and set them in mini cupcake wrappers). Melt some chocolate in the microwave or a double burner and dip the balls into it, placing them on parchment paper to cool in the fridge. The second lovely decorated bunch came from here.
  
  

Fair Food

The Texas State Fair is in some ways, just like any other state fair. There are rides, games, exhibits, museums, car shows, vendor booths...The thing that sets this particular state fair apart from the others? The fried food. It is well known for having the craziest fried food. Every year they even have awards handed out for the most creative and best tasting.
Chuck and I spent a weekend in Dallas and headed out on the fairs opening weekend. There was so much to choose from!! What would we want to try a sample of? The award winning fried bubblegum?(Most creative, though others have said it was terrible tasting.) Last years fried beer? Fried chicken skin? Fried salsa? The list goes on...

The first thing we went for won the Best Taste this year. Fried buffalo chicken flapjack. A piece of chicken that was shoved on a stick, and battered in a jalapeno buffalo pancake batter. Maple Syrup on the side for dipping.
Amazing.

We also grabbed up some fried ribs, and a Koolaid pickle.  Fried ribs were an epic fail.  They were pretty terrible. The fries were horrible as well.
The pickle on the other hand was pretty good. I may try to make up a batch myself!

We also had to have a funnel cake. I would show it to you but, well...

 

Pumpkin Painting

Halloween is getting closer!

I've got a small arsenal of tiny pumpkins sitting in a bowl on my kitchen table, waiting to be decorated.

There's also a selection on my front porch that are currently

stacked into totem poles on either side of the walkway.
I'm planning on painting the small ones this coming weekend I hope!

I'm just not sure what type of paint job I want. Any ideas?

(click through photos for link credits)

Ombre Dyeing

Have you seen one of the latest trends to hit the runway? 

Ombre

Many designers are incorporating this into recent designs.

(Designers featured, upper left and clockwise; Alexander McQueen, ADAM, Diane Von Furstenberg, Matthew Williamson, Diane Von Furstenberg, Badgeley Mischka) 

Interested in trying this out for yourself? It's a pretty simple DIY!

The Ritdye website 

actually has a tutorial for this. 

You only need one color dye, 

and you get the transition

by leaving certain parts in the dye longer than others. 

Use a dowel rod to hold your fabric. It makes it easier to raise and lower into the dye. 

Plan on using a lot of dye? 

Invite over a group of friends to help use up the rest!

Make some drinks and 

have everyone bring an item to dye.

You can also use multiple colors to get the look. Over at

I Spy DIY, 

they used two different shades of blue.

It was perfect for obtaining this dip dyed denim look 

Kanye wore at the VMAs this year!

Get creative. 

This isn't limited to just tops and dresses. 

You can dip dye the ends of a scarf.

or he bottom of a pair of jeans.

Want to pull off this look without having to get out the buckets and alter your clothing? 

Get out the paints and grab some big bangle bracelets. 

You can pull this off with one color, mixing with white for a lighter look and black for a darker look.

Or, try it on your nails

Washed Up

What are you doing about the issue of plastic and metal pollution? Do you walk down the beach with a trash bag picking up bottles to throw away? Or do you ignore it and let the ocean take care of it.

Have you wondered where many of these items have ended up?

Sian Ka'an is Mexico's largest federally protected reserve.

Never heard of it?

There's more then twenty pre-Colombian archaeological sites there. It's also the world's second largest coastal barrier reef. Sadly, due to the currents in the ocean, it is also a location where you'll find the worlds pollution dumping ground.

Artist, Alejandro Duran has been to this wasteland.

A bit of arranging to the pieces found washed up along the shoreline, and this photographer has been able to capture what much of the world hasn't seen.

Would you believe he's identified products from forty-two nations that have landed here?

This project was meant to raise awareness.

Step over to his website at http://www.washed-up-project.com/ and take a look at what he's discovered.

Will you do your part?

Help stop this gorgeous undeveloped land from becoming our dumping ground.

Credits: http://www.washed-up-project.com/